Dragon Fruit Germination tips?

[Pablo]

So yesterday night, I was at the store with my mother and we were looking for ingredients I needed for a meal I needed to cook for my cooking club. I was looking at the garlic and I saw this couple holding up this dragon fruit. I was completely shocked that our local grocery store was selling dragon fruit. I went over to check it out and it was 7$, I convinced my mom to buy it considering they're pretty rare. I completely blanked out the entire time we were there because I was so excited for the dragonfruit. Along with the dragon fruit, they had some of those kiwano horned melons, which I couldn't get because I didn't wanna push it too far with my mom when we were already running low on money.
Anyways, how do I germinate these things? I ate one-half of the dragon fruit (which was amazing, it taste similar to a kiwi but better because you dont need to go through the trouble to peel it), I have the other one in a bag in the fridge. I took seeds from the first half, I soaked them in water, and rubbed them between my fingers in order to remove the pulp, (could that damage them?). I also put some of the seeds in a pot of dirt rather than using the plastic bag method, though, these ones were buried with lots of pulp. Am I doing this right? Like should I put it in a window or something?
Any general advice?

 

[Fernsdaddy]

You should have let the seeds dry out first before planting them, the pulp could rot the seeds, they like lots of light when young and when the get 4 or 5 months old you can give the morning sun until the really start to grow.
I've never had any luck getting the seeds to grow, mine ender up moldy so I gave up trying seeds and grew mine from a cutting,If you really want to grow one you would be better off buying a plant or a cutting, there easy to grow from a cutting and it will grow fast onces its roots

 

[Pablo]

You should have let the seeds dry out first before planting them, the pulp could rot the seeds, they like lots of light when young and when the get 4 or 5 months old you can give the morning sun until the really start to grow.
I've never had any luck getting the seeds to grow, mine ender up moldy so I gave up trying seeds and grew mine from a cutting,If you really want to grow one you would be better off buying a plant or a cutting, there easy to grow from a cutting and it will grow fast onces its roots

I cleaned off the pulp on the seeds in the plastic bag and now they are starting to germinate after 2 days, they should be available to plant in a week or two. Germinating the seeds in the dirt was just an experiment because I had extra seeds, I don't expect em o grow..

 

[Corzhens]

We have a dragon fruit plant here for more than 10 years now. Right now it has 1 ripe fruit that I plan to pic tomorrow so it will be very ripe. With the planting, this is the first time I've heard of the seeds. As @Fernsdaddy said, the cutting is the proper way to propagate the dragon fruit. It is not a delicate plant. Just cut one branch that looks matured and stick it on the ground, surely it will grow by itself. But there should be a trellis where it can climb for it doesn't prosper when it couldn't get a leverage for heights.

 

[Pablo]

We have a dragon fruit plant here for more than 10 years now. Right now it has 1 ripe fruit that I plan to pic tomorrow so it will be very ripe. With the planting, this is the first time I've heard of the seeds. As @Fernsdaddy said, the cutting is the proper way to propagate the dragon fruit. It is not a delicate plant. Just cut one branch that looks matured and stick it on the ground, surely it will grow by itself. But there should be a trellis where it can climb for it doesn't prosper when it couldn't get a leverage for heights.

what's wrong with growing it by seed? I already have about 20 seeds germinating, their roots are pretty long. Plan on getting some cactus soil soon. Could I grow it in a hanging basket? I have chicken wire with some decently large holes that it should be able to grow on, might need to add a bit more support though.

 

[SydneyGee]

Plant them and find out! Just because what worked for some does not mean you cannot try something different. If they have roots you are already off to a great start! I would have mine grow like a tree rather than a low hanging basket, but that is just my opinion. Plant a few in sandy soil, some in plain soil to test which they like better. Whatever you put them in make sure it has holes!

 

[Corzhens]

what's wrong with growing it by seed? I already have about 20 seeds germinating, their roots are pretty long. Plan on getting some cactus soil soon. Could I grow it in a hanging basket? I have chicken wire with some decently large holes that it should be able to grow on, might need to add a bit more support though.

I'm not saying it's wrong to plant the dragon fruit using the seeds. I just said that it is the cutting that I know which is the proper way. But if your seeds will prosper into a plant and would give you fruits, then that would be a great achievement for your. And you can actually post those plants from germinated seeds here in this forum to serve as added knowledge for those who fancy dragon fruit plants.

 

[Pablo]

I'm not saying it's wrong to plant the dragon fruit using the seeds. I just said that it is the cutting that I know which is the proper way. But if your seeds will prosper into a plant and would give you fruits, then that would be a great achievement for your. And you can actually post those plants from germinated seeds here in this forum to serve as added knowledge for those who fancy dragon fruit plants.

I planted two outside, 3 in a container with regular potting soil, then 4 in a container with soil from my backyard. I do not know what to say about the soil in my backyard, it is pretty sandy but there are some small rocks in it, when I get it wet it gets really muddy. I don't know if it would be okay for them, looked like there were no weeds or bugs in it. I have plenty of other seeds inside the bag where they are germinating but how long could I leave them in there until they die? I wanna know which soil is safe for them until I plant them. The seed coating just started coming off the seedlings revealing the leaves, I started germinating them on Friday and planted them yesterday so they are about 4 days old and they already have their leaves coming out, is that normal because when I germinated my papaya seeds along time ago they took about a week or two to show their leaves, this seems a little too quick. What is your soil like? Sorry if I ask too many questions, I get really bad anxiety when I grow stuff because I don't know if they are safe or not and I also have really bad patience. I have high hopes for allot of things but they always get destroyed. My papaya seedlings all died and it made me pretty upset so I hope this doesn't happen to my dragonfruit.

 

[CrazyConure]

You can plant from seed, but it will take much longer for it to fruit. Cuttings are much better.